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Monday, October 31, 2011

Foolproof Homemade Caramel Sauce

Caramels are little cubes of firm yet soft candy wrapped in a clear bit of plastic. And made by Kraft. Right?

Or caramel is a squeeze of marvelous golden glue over ice scream. From a convenient, slim plastic bottle in the fridge door. And made by Hershey. Right?

Or it's a can of sweetened condensed milk boiled for an eternity until only golden goodness remains. Technically called dulce de leche. Right?

Nope, nope, nope. That stuff is all just sad imposters. Really convenient, really easy - I'll give you that. But not caramel. Because caramel has no need of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). It has no need of preservatives. It has no need of artificial caramel-color-number-whatever. And definitely no need of the BPA canning chemical.

Love yourself a little more and ditch those caramel impersonators. Or if you can't love yourself enough to bother, than love someone else a little more. Melt a little sugar, add a little cream, toss in a pinch of salt and take a deep breath. You just made caramel. Real caramel. Real easy.

No scary candy thermometers, no cauldrons, no special ingredients. No HFCS, artificial colors, preservatives or canning chemicals either. But you can keep it in a squeeze bottle if you want. For convenience.

But real caramel plays for keeps. And once you fall in love, your heart will never accept substitutions. No squeeze bottles of artificial glue. No cans of cooked chemical milk. No plastic wrapped cubes. So open your heart to love and throw out that bag of Kraft caramel squares. A genuine caramel romance awaits.

In the center of a medium stainless steel pot, add the sugars and slowly pour the water over the sugar; do not stir

Cover the pot and heat over medium-low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved, stirring gently every 5 minutes

In a 2-cup measure with a pour spout, stir together the heavy cream, whole milk, salt and vanilla; set aside

Once the sugar is completed dissolved, uncover the pot and raise the heat to medium-high; boil the syrup for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until the syrup turns a deep amber color and the surface remains foamy

Add the cubed butter all at once; when the foaming subsides, stir the mixture gently until the butter is completely absorbed and the sauce begins to foam

Add the cream mixture in 3 parts, stirring gently and allowing the sauce to thicken and foam between each addition of cream; after the final addition of cream, let the sauce foam for 4 minutes, gently stirring continuously

Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer the sauce for 10 minutes until the sauce is smooth and thickened, stirring gently but continuously

Remove the sauce from the heat and serve immediately or cool and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks

Read First: Read the entire recipe before you start! Memorize it. Or at least be familiar with each step so you're not running trying to search for the next step while your sugar burns. Gather all your ingredients together before you begin, know what to expect and approach this caramel sauce with confidence.

Brown Sugar: I use mostly brown sugar for my recipe because I like the depth of flavor and dark color of the final caramel sauce. But if you prefer the more traditional lighter amber caramel, swap out some or all of the brown sugar with granulated sugar. The flavor changes, but it's still delicious.

Water: The addition of water creates a simple syrup with the sugar and reduces the likelihood of burning the sugar. That's a good thing if you can be patient enough to let the water steam away before the sugar finally caramelizes. If you're an experienced caramel maker, you can skip the water entirely and just melt the sugar in the pan.

I recommend using a heavy-bottomed pan as it will help even out the heat distribution and avoid hot-spots in the sugar-melting process.

Caramel sauce keeps for at least a week in the refrigerator but the sugar will gradually crystalize over time. Heating the sauce before using helps to eliminate some of these crystals.

I use this sauce both as a topping/dip (e.g. ice cream, fruit, waffles, cheesecake, etc.) and as a base for other recipes like sticky buns. And sometimes I throw in spices like cinnamon at the end to punch up the flavor.

I'm still very much annoyed with Google's Blogger team for all the glitches in these new "dynamic" templates. I'm still finding bugs despite 2 months of use... :( Thanks for taking the time to post a comment - it's much appreciated.

[second try at commenting] It's been years since I've made caramel! Love your step-by-step photos! I so agree with you that caramel must be made the old-fashioned way, no condensed milk. I don't think people should be boiling anything in cans; no telling what might leach out of the can or the solder or whatever.

Author of Cooking with Love blog. Often found pretending to cook, write or swim. Believe love is always what's missing. Follower of the Way. Passionate about from-scratch comfort food. Currently live, write and cook in Indianapolis. About the name